The Tartar tribes of central Asia spoke a certain curse against an enemy. They didn’t call for their enemy’s swords to rust or for their people to die of disease. Instead they said, “May you stay in one place forever.”

The best way to assure yourself that you will never get better is to stand still. Jim Rohn said, “In order to do more, you first have to be more.”

Peter Drucker, the father of modern management, said, “The great mystery isn’t that people do things badly but that they occasionally do a few things well. The only thing that is universal is incompetence.”

Drucker’s point is that we all have flaws, and that’s okay. What’s not okay is standing still, not doing anything to improve.

I read a story about a St. Louis doctor who met a young man in high school who had lost his hand at the wrist. When the doctor asked about his handicap, the teenager responded, “I don’t have a handicap, sir. I just don’t have a right hand.”

It turns out the boy was the leading scorer on his basketball team. He learned to focus on what he had left rather than on what he had lost. He learned to not stand still.

Paul said, “But as for you, be strong and do not give up. Your work will be rewarded” (2 Chronicles 15:7).